insufficiency

From in- + sufficiency.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnsəˈfɪʃənsi/

• Audio (General American):

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insufficiency (plural insufficiencies)

1. The lack of sufficiency: a shortage, the state of having or being not enough (of something).

   Synonyms: lack, unsufficiency (obsolete)

   Near-synonyms: deficiency (broadly synonymous), inadequacy

   The troops went hungry because of the insufficiency of their supplies.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XXI. Lady Marchmont’s Journal.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 160:

     She may crowd her days with gaiety, variety, and what are called amusements; she will do so only to find their insufficiency.

   • 1962 October, “Beyond the Channel: Western Germany: Rhine right-bank line re-signalling”, in Modern Railways, page 276:

     On a recent trip down the Rhine many of the trains we saw were still steam-hauled, presumably through an insufficiency of electric locomotives, as yet, to deal with peak summer traffic.

See deficiency § Usage notes.